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Persistent quasi-periodic turbidite activity off Saharan Africa and its comparability to orbital and climate cyclicities

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Abstract

Based on a high-resolution sediment record from a submarine meandering canyon system offshore the present-day hyperarid Saharan Africa, two phases of turbidity-current activity can be distinguished during the past 13,000 years. Frequent, siliciclastic turbidity currents can be related to deglacial sea-level history, whereas rhythmically recurring fine-grained and carbonate-rich turbidity currents with recurrence times of roughly 900 years are inferred for the Holocene. Various trigger mechanisms can be considered to initiate turbidity currents, but only a few can explain a periodic turbidite activity. A comparison of Holocene turbidite recurrence times and basic cycles of 900 and 1,800 years found in various Holocene paleoclimate studies suggests that a previously unrecognized climate-related coupling may be active.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to J. Bardenhagen for preparing the carbonate data. R.B. Wynn and K. Wien are cordially acknowledged for discussion. Moreover, we thank B. Dennielou, N.C. Mitchell, and M. Sarnthein for their improvements, as well as D.J.W. Piper and G. Uenzelmann-Neben for their reviews. We are grateful for constructive comments and corrections by the editors of GML. Data presented in this study are available at http://www.pangaea.de. This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as part of the DFG-Research Center ‘Ocean Margins’ of the University of Bremen. This is contribution RCOM0523.

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  1. C. Zühlsdorff

    Present address: Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Allégaten 41, 5007, Bergen, Norway

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  1. Faculty of Geosciences, Bremen University, Klagenfurter Straße, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    C. Zühlsdorff, T. J. J. Hanebuth & R. Henrich

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Zühlsdorff, C., Hanebuth, T.J.J. & Henrich, R. Persistent quasi-periodic turbidite activity off Saharan Africa and its comparability to orbital and climate cyclicities. Geo-Mar Lett 28, 87–95 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-007-0092-0

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